Justice League: Odyessy #3
First posted on my personal blog.
Philippe Briones and Jeromy Cox take over from Stjepan Šejić as artist and colourist this issue.
I’m going to be honest here, I have nothing against Briones’ art, but, it’s jarring to go from Šejić’s art to Briones. The latter is a fantastic artist but it seems that he has an issue with drawing faces as several faces come across as unnatural or stretched. While Briones may not be the best at drawing faces, he pulls through on world and enviromental details.
This issue shows how far the Ghost Sector’s inhabitants have gone to survive. Enslavement, murder on behalf of the “Old Gods” and giant statues of their gods. It’s also interesting to see how vast and different each planet in the Sector is compared to one another. One moment they’re on a barren wasteland of a planet, the next an icy tundra!
We get to see how out of their depth everyone bar Jessica is out in space. Accepting help from those they’ve only met, even if it does work out, is risky business for the League. Especially if they have no back-up if things go south.
Darkseid, the God of Evil. A character that I don’t know that much about is depowered and in a weakened state, is playing the long game with the Odyssey League. Watching and waiting as his pawns do the work for him.
Issue #3 introduces us to what may be the villain for the story, Rapture! A badass Azrael knock-off, but in space who doesn’t seem to bothered about blood!
With the stakes slowly being raised with each issue, I wonder whether the upcoming conclusion to the first arc will explain why Azrael, Cyborg and Starfire are considered gods in the Ghost Sector. As so far it’s only covered minor moments of what it’s like to be worshipped as a god.
Overall, this is a great issue as it sets up new characters and the next issue extremely well, but the art is what holds it back from being the best it could be. I’m hoping Briones’ art improves in the next issue if he’s staying as I really don’t want to keep seeing Jessica with weird faces.